The present application relates to a dispersion material that includes semiconductor nanoparticles, to a photoelectric conversion device, and to an imaging unit.
In an imaging unit (a solid-state imaging unit) such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensor and a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor, the number of photons that enter a unit pixel (a photoelectric conversion device) decreases as a pixel size is reduced, which results in decrease in S—N ratio.
Accordingly, there is proposed a method of using semiconductor nanoparticles in the photoelectric conversion device (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2010-177392 and 2006-245285 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2011-528865). For example, as the semiconductor nanoparticles, lead-selenium compound (PbSe), lead-sulfur compound (PbS), lead-tellurium compound (PbTe), cadmium-selenium compound (CdSe), cadmium-tellurium compound (CdTe), indium-arsenic compound (InAs), and/or the like are used. A dispersion material that includes the semiconductor nanoparticles is applied onto a substrate to form a nanoparticle layer.